Voter Fraud in Pennsylvania

It looks like the 2012 Election Day is off to a great start with reports of voter fraud taking place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania early Tuesday morning. Multiple reports on Twitter, Fox News, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the National Review are citing as many as 25 polling stations have removed court-appointed election inspectors from their voting sites on the authority of the Head Judge of Elections in that voting ward.

Twitchy Politics lists several tweets with specific locations and wards where up to 70 ejections have taken place. The Inquirer’s Tom Fitzgerald lists each guilty ward and division:

Just as the news was beginning to spread around the country, Fox News is reporting a Pennsylvania judge is moving to correct the fraud immediately. What is interesting is this appears to be common in Pennsylvania, only not usually involving this many inspectors.

A Pennsylvania judge is issuing an order to reinstate Republican election officials across Philadelphia who allegedly were ejected or refused entry by on-site Democratic voting chief judges, GOP officials tell Fox News.

One Republican official claimed that “just under 70″ Republican election officials were blocked from Philadelphia polling sites Tuesday morning by Democrats on site. One of them, the official claimed, “was shoved out of the polling place.”

“For this many inspectors to be ejected from polling places is rare, even for Philadelphia,” the official told FoxNews.com.

Republicans claim they are obtaining a series of court orders to seat the so-called election “inspectors,” and sheriff’s deputies will be available to escort them.

Despite the high number of officials who were allegedly booted, the dispute itself is not uncommon for Philadelphia. Fred Voigt, legal counsel for the city commissioners, said these kinds of face-offs happen “with regularity” in the City of Brotherly Love.

“It happens all the time,” Voigt said. He said court-appointed Republican officials typically show up on Election Day and end up squaring off against stand-in officials at the polling sites filling in the open seats. ”There are no cool heads here,” Voigt said.

The on-site election officials are responsible for verifying the identity of voters, and monitoring for signs of fraud or disenfranchisement.

Does it really matter how many inspectors are removed? The removal of one court-appointed official is against the law. Why is this allowed to occur at any degree? This is just one more example of how certain people feel they can throw out the Constitution and other laws of this land in the name of what best serves their own interests. When did the Bill of Rights become optional? We cannot afford four more years of this.